According to Chief Election Commissioner Neel Kantha Uprety, a meeting of the constitutional body held at its central office in the capital Tuesday approved a 25-point “Constituent Assembly Election Timeline 2070”. [break]
The timeline starts from the third week of June and will end in mid December. “The timeline starts from the voter registration process and will end with counting of votes cast in the CA polls,” Uprety told Republica.
A cabinet meeting held Thursday had announced the date for fresh polls and formed a five-member Constituency Delineation Commission (CDC) under former justice Tahir Ali Ansari.
“This is our macro plan,” stated the chief commissioner, adding, “We will develop micro plan based on the macro plan.”
According to the timeline, the constitutional body will accomplish the ongoing voter registration with photographs and biometrics by mid-July.
The EC will ask the voters to file any objections or claims over the voters" lists, probe the issue and finalize the new electoral roll and will publish the final list between July 15 and August 5. The constitutional body will take the final decision on registering political parties for the upcoming CA election by the first week of August.
According to EC spokesman Bir Bahadur Rai, the EC will deliver documents related to voter"s education from August 6 to October 31 and conduct trainings on voter"s education from first week of August to second week of October.
The constitutional body will determine polling stations across the country by August 5 while it will enforce the election code of conduct and monitor it till December 15.
The EC will appoint returning officers, train them and set up offices for them between August 17 and September 16. Similarly, the commission will accomplish activities related to candidacy under proportional representation electoral system from August 17 to August 23 and will complete works related to candidacy under first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system from September 13 to September 30.
Likewise, the EC plans to hold discussions with political parties and civil society, among other stakeholders from July 12 to November 7. As per the timeline, the constitutional body will formulate and endorse policy and directives related to election observation from August 12 to December 15.
The EC will conduct media monitoring from July 16 to December 6 and will run unified election operation center from August 17 till November 29. Also, the constitutional body will run media centre at its central office from July 12 to December.
As per the timeline, the commission will conduct polls for the new CA on November 19 and will begin counting the votes from the same day.
Asked if there could be any change in the timeline, an EC official said, “Only the timeline related to Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) will be affected as India has yet to confirm whether or not it would deliver the EVMs as required.”
Uprety calls on Regmi
Chief Election Commissioner Uprety on Tuesday morning called on Chairman of the Interim Election Council Khil Raj Regmi.
According to Uprety, he briefed Regmi on his recent visit to India. The chief election commissioner had visited India last week to discuss EVMs, among other things.
Related story
Timeline: The week since Myanmar's coup
